


How Bruce Banner got a yoga studio

by MurphysScribe



Category: The Avengers (2012), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: #coulsonlives, Gen, Post-Avengers (2012)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-19
Updated: 2013-11-15
Packaged: 2017-12-20 17:39:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/890007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MurphysScribe/pseuds/MurphysScribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tony rebuilt Stark Tower after the Chitauri invasion, he made sure each Avenger had a floor of his, or her own. A floor of Stark Tower is a huge expanse of space. Here's a story of what each Avenger, especially Bruce, did with the space.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Avengers belong to Marvel, not to me. I only profit in amusement.

In the weeks and months after the defeat of the Chitauri, New York began inching back toward normal. Or, toward what entirely too many pundits and newscasters called “the new normal.” And that meant rebuilding. It also meant endless meetings for SHIELD, and for the Avengers, more often than they liked.

                “So, I have an idea,” said Tony, as one such rebuilding dragged to a close.

                “Is this a ‘shawarma’ idea, an ‘explode something in the lab,’ idea or a ‘publicity stunt that will give Pepper heartburn’ idea?” Pepper asked, drily.

                Tony tilted his head to one side, considering for long enough to make Bruce and Pepper exchange worried glances. “Mostly the first thing and the third thing but the second thing could get easier for me and Bruce… you guys wanna come live in Stark Tower? We’re redesigning anyway, and, if we decide now you could each design your own floor. And then we’d already be assembled the next time …”

                “I’m in. SHIELD barracks suck,” Clint volunteered, promptly.

                “It makes strategic sense to have us all in one place,” said Steve, ever the captain.

                “It does,” Natasha said, without any outward clue about what she thought of the idea.

                “Brucie, say yes,  if not to me, then to shiny state of the art lab equipment and joint publication,” Tony pleaded.

                But that wasn’t what did it. It was Pepper reaching her hand down the table to him. “It’d be really nice to have you around.”

                “All right!” Tony crowed. “Let’s do this! Planning meeting of our _own_ tonight.  Meet me on 9- technically, that’s the boardroom floor, but screw ‘em, it’s intact, and they leave to go hunting for fresh blood at sundown,” he said.

“The blood is typical Tony exaggeration,” Clint reassured Steve. “I think.”

“Takeout, floor plans, and a list of contractors. 8 PM.  Be there! Or I’ll design your floor as a wall-to-wall jello wrestling pit!” Tony said.

Laughing more than they usually did after a planning meeting, the team disbanded.

 

 to be continued....


	2. A floor is a lot of space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More on what each Avenger does with his or her floor in the Tower.

"So here's the plan," said Tony, sweeping some of the now-empty takeout containers aside. "JARVIS, give me the Tower in 3-D and light up the team floors."

A holographic image sprang to life. Steve wasn't the only one who gasped.

"Wait, you've got gaping holes whistling the wind through this place, and the AI still works?" Clint asked.

"JARVIS never went offline... his backups have backups."

"Sir and Madam and I have some inkling of what might appeal to each of you in terms of design," said JARVIS, his voice appearing to come from overhead.

"So, I'm thinking a training floor too- for like, a shooting range," Clint crowed in delight "and a workout kind of place so we can all beat the crap out of each other as needed, without SHIELD getting up our noses," Tony said, gesturing as the diagram lit up on another floor. "Pep and I are here. The lab's here and here. and these floors are a no-go because company stuff. Boring. And I'm thinking... we keep these floors for, team stuff. This one for boring meetings, but it's on our turf, and we can stash visiting people here and keep an eye on 'em. And this floor for... like... all of us?" 

He looked at them, and not all of them saw the hope flickering under his cocky grin.

"OK, so fun stuff! Your stuff!" Sections of the diagram split off from the tower plan and hovered in front of each Avenger. 

One hovered in front of an unoccupied chair. "AGENT" glittered in bright blue letters above the projection. Clint and Natasha exchanged a glance. "We will ensure that he sees this as soon as he is awake," Natasha said fiercely, and a little huskily.

"And I've got paper floorplans, if that's easier to conceptualize," Pepper said, pushing cartons aside to unroll sheets of paper.

Steve unrolled the plan next to his sketchpad and dove right in with a pencil. 

Clint studied his plan... "I have a couple questions about how this connects to..."

"Relax, Ceiling Cat, J show him the vents and the roof access," Tony interrupted.

"Dude," said Clint. "You did _not_ just call me Ceiling Cat," Clint groused but then his eyes lit up when he saw the vent pathways. "Oh, seriously? Cool! Can I have a climbing wall?"

"You can have anything you want. Think of me as Real Estate Santa Claus. And think of Pepper as Good at Finding Any Furniture Anywhere Mrs. Claus."

Pepper snorted. "Think of me as willing to help... without such tortured metaphors."

Silence subsided as they sketched and dreamed.

Bedrooms... kitchens... workrooms for various endeavors... each of them designed bathrooms with showers that could pummel sore post-mission muscles, feeling varying degrees of decadent and guilty. Storage space. Guest rooms.

The realization hit them each eventually. An entire floor of a building like Stark Tower is a large space. Larger than operatives and former fugitives and poor kids from Brooklyn could really grasp. Walls of bedrooms and kitchens inched outwards. Rooms devoted to libraries got added. Clint scrapped his initial idea of "kitchen" and started asking JARVIS to help him find pictures of some of the kitchens he'd seen on the Food Network. Steve gave himself an art studio. An entire studio. With big windows. Bruce, accustomed to living out of a duffel bag stared at a void of space he'd marked with a question mark.

"Where does one order a ballet barre?" Natasha asked, tentatively.

Bruce leaned to see what she'd done. Flashes of Mumbai and Delhi sprang to mind. Studio. Yes.

He felt both childlike wonder and a little desire to cringe at his hedonism, drawing from memories of places he had learned to meditate.


	3. Nesting: a Team-Building Exercise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Avengers begin to decorate their spaces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Restoration Hardware has the kind of retro furniture with classic lines I think Steve would like.
> 
> ABC Carpet, in the same neighborhood, is a mishmash of all kinds of styles, not just of carpet, but accessories and throw pillows and etc.

Over the weeks that followed, there were public appearances where they had to smile and fight the urge to cringe, flee or turn green; villains to fight (mercifully, only humans with delusions of grandeur, no aliens); a city and a Tower to rebuild; and, perhaps most importantly and most uncertainly... learning to become a team.

SHIELD had scheduled them for a few team-building exercises. Sitwell their ("temporary," Clint said fiercely) SHIELD handler, offered these sheepishly. And the team dutifully went through the paces.

Tony kept them updated on the Tower repairs. Each of the floors they had claimed, slowly became habitable.

It started slowly: On her way to an investor meeting, Pepper walked by [Restoration Hardware](http://www.restorationhardware.com/). A dark, hardwood table and a leather armchair in the window caught her eye. The next chance she got, she brought Steve, who, as she had guessed, liked the classic designs and clean, solid lines. When they browsed next door at the riot of colors and designs in ABC Carpet, Steve was a little too overwhelmed to find anything for himself, but he found a set of pillows in the deep nearly-black purple he knew Clint liked, and took a picture to show the archer. 

Clint returned the favor a few weeks later by helping Steve shop for a cabinet to put the home entertainment system Tony insisted each of them needed. They took the subway down to meet Bruce for dumplings in Chinatown, and to look at easels and art supplies (Steve) kitchen gadgets and pots (all of them) and a good set of mugs and interesting tea (Bruce). They also found a tea set Clint thought Natasha would like, to which Bruce contributed a few packets of loose tea he thought she might enjoy.

Although Pepper offered to get them chauffered there, Steve, Clint and Natasha ventured to IKEA by subway and bus. Bruce, who had elected to stay home in deference to The Other Guy, had given them a list of incomprehensible Norse names for flat pack furniture he wanted them to investigate on his behalf.  Clint spearheaded the kitchen planning for all of them, Natasha curled experimentally into a few chairs, and Steve followed his super nose to a few plates of Swedish meatballs. After they had arranged their purchases, they found a nearby pub with very good pizza. Clint decided that beer tasted better after being slightly overwhelmed by a furniture warehouse, and Natasha split a pizza with Steve. (Enhanced metabolism will do that to a person.)

Beds, rugs, lamps, kitchens... each Avenger's space began to take shape. Natasha saw Steve sketching before a meeting, and requested some art for her walls. Tony enlisted the aid of the bots to assemble the various furniture purchases. Swatches of fabric and paint made their way to Pepper and Steve's discerning eye for commentary.

Kitchen, bedroom, living room. Rugs, shower fixtures, countertops, stove. Bruce's space took shape, in the warm colors he'd gotten to like in Asia. But the room he'd marked on his plans as "Studio???" stood empty, a storage place for boxes in transit, bits of lab equipment he hadn't assembled, a bookshelf he wasn't sure where to put.

The weeks rolled on.


End file.
